#rivian

#rivian

Rivian Automotive Inc. ( NASDAQ: RIVN) posted another quarter that shows how little progress it has made in the electric vehicle (EV) sector. Management pointed out that revenue rose 78% to $1.56 billion. It is more instructive to look at the previous quarter (June), in which revenue was $1.3 billion. Most EV makers had a sales surge because people rushed to take advantage of the $7,500 tax credit before it ended. That did not happen to Rivian.

"The location is important to us", says Bo Lincoln, General Manager Sweden at Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies. Bo Lincoln is former co-founder of Iternio, a Lund-based EV route planing startup, which was acquired by Rivian in 2023. Now his team is creating the software and digital execution platform for electric vehicle products from Rivian and Volkswagen brands, including the Rivian R1, R2 and R3 as well as the VW ID.every1.

Rivian is changing the door handle design on its upcoming R2 SUV after employees and customers raised safety concerns, according to Bloomberg News. The automaker is one of many that has leaned into electronically-latched door handles over the last few years. While this allows for sleeker presentation and more aerodynamic design, it often results in the automaker tucking the manual emergency door releases away in hard-to-find places.

This marks the second time that Rivian has cut its sales projections this year. At the start of 2025, the company expected to sell up to 51,000 vehicles. In May, as it became clear that President Trump's tariffs and attacks on key climate policies would deal a blow to America's EV industry, Rivian cut the top end of its forecast to 46,000 units. Now it doesn't expect to meet that, either.

With the announcement of a new plant in Georgia made earlier this month, and a deal with Volkswagen several months ago, it looked like Rivian Automotive Inc. ( NASDAQ: RIVN), which has lost billions of dollars and will probably lose billions more, was on the road to a better future. However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported it had begun a preliminary investigation into 17,198 Rivian electric delivery vans over seat belt flaw concerns.

This was the 10th year that the auto firm has conducted its study. Based on the raw scores of automakers in the survey, Tesla was the clear winner with a rating of 873 points out of 1,000. As noted in a CarUp report, Tesla's ratings was more than twice as much as veteran automakers like Volkswagen or Toyota, which scored 432 and 436 points, respectively.